The limits of nagging power

26 augusti, 2009

There’s something weird about one of the most established marketing and media planning principles: frequency.

I do not doubt that there’s such a thing as nagging power, or that repetition is a path to establishing memories (and thereby installing messages in peoples minds). But the leap from recall or, worse, recognition of a tag line, jingle, package, logo, whatever to actual PERSUATION…no, I don’t buy it. No way. I’m totally with Ehrenberg and the idea that advertising works as a weak force.

If influence worked the way media agencies claim, you could get laid every night by simply standing close to the object of your desire and saying “let’s fuck” at a frequency 3 times greater than your rivals.

Creds to Neutron for the image. great thinking going on there. Nicked it off their blog. But they have a link on top of their site saying “steal this idea”, so I figured they’d be OK with it.